Merry Christmas

Hello Friends & Family,

We've had an eventful year, and wanted to catch you up and what we've been up to :)

The year started off with a bang. We have been wanting to expand the school options for the older kids. In previous years we attended a local home school co-op, but making the trip to Whitefish to do so during the winter was a lot as it meant putting on the tire chains each trip and up to an hour and a half drive each way. So we found an online home school co-op and Arywen and Gwyn where able to start taking several classes each, even though we where jumping into the middle of the school year. They found the live, group video classes, and submitting all homework electronically to be a bit of a change, but liked it.

One of our other favorite school activities are the Missoula Children's Theater plays. It is an intense week (all day, every day) of everyone learning the play, and then putting it on Friday. This year the play was Peter Pan, and was the second week of January.

Right after the play we had some of our coldest weather on record, with daytime highs at -30°F. We also had Eomaer's baptism, on what happened to be the coldest day of the year. It took all day to first warm the generator enough for it to start, and then use it to warm the car engine enough that it would start, and then get into town.

We also found out that we where expecting. We had planned on one more, but hadn't expected it quiet so soon.

The week after that, we packed up our travel trailer and started another extended trip. We departed in mid January, and stayed on the road until late May. Between the start of school, Eomaer's baptism, the MCT play, Heather's birthday, super cold weather etc. it was a bit to get everything packed and ready. Then we had an adrenaline packed start to our trip as we got the trailer out of our icy mountain fastness. Even with chains on all tires, we decided we'll never again try to get a trailer out in the winter.

Our first stop on our trip was Heather's parents place in Rigby Idaho. From there we spent some time in Salt Lake City. It was fun to be on the road again, as we hadn't taken a truly "full length" trip since our year long trip pre-COVID. We have traveled for several weeks at a time in the intervening years, and visited several states, but Heather says that those barely count as "trips".

While in Salt Lake City (baby) Ronia and Heather started to get the flue. We decided to keep to our schedule though, and headed to Cortez Colorado, where we wanted to visit Mesa Verde. We got through to our next spot ok, but then everyone became about the sickest we have every been. Bodily fluids out of all ends, of everyone, every hour for more than a week. We did so much laundry, and so many showers.

We almost decided that if we where going to be this tired, this stretched, etc we should just go back home. But after 10 days or so everyone started to perk up some, get caught back up on school and work etc. We ended up getting to see the cave dwellings and other things in Mesa Verde.

We've found that the kids remember trips best by associating them with food. I can recall my siblings being the same, I would ask Jurney if he remembered trips to Flathead Lake and he would say something like "was that the time we went to the funky drive in burger place?". So we decided we would try to do an ethnic or other memorable cuisine at each major stop. In Cortez we found a cool Chinese place, and it was (still is) more remembered than Mesa Verde...

Heather also found a cool used bookstore. I (Jordan) found the bookstore cool too, but was most fascinated by their solid hardwood bookshelves. Floor to ceiling in every room, and dividing most rooms up too. It must have been 10's of thousands of dollars worth of hardwood. I asked the proprietor and he said he too thought it was cool, but cooler that he had gotten it all for free years ago when there was a hardwood flooring manufacturer in Cortez.

From Cortez we went on to visit friends (the Jacksons) that we had made on our first trip, and who live in Deming NM. The Jackson's have 6 kids, home school, and we all get along great. We ended parking our travel trailer alongside their house, and staying for I think it was six weeks. We tried to arrive healthy — no sense in sharing that flue bug! But within a few days of being there one of their girls came down with something, and then we shared it all around and back and forth for weeks.

We enjoyed the desert, with the extra sun & warmth. Lots of people we know have commented on how we can't stand Montana winters and need to head south... but it is actually the other way around. We wanted to travel, and to see friends and can't stand the southern summers!

One of our favorite things while we where there was a day trip to Whitesands, NM. It is a national park, and is entirely filled with white sand dunes. The dunes are quite large, 40-80 feet tall, and shift in the winds so it is different each time you go. We and the Jacksons brought sleds, and you can sled down the dunes. It is a popular spot, with a lot of people visiting it each day.

After the Jacksons we went on to Tucson AZ. By now it is the first part of March, and Meredith in particular has been wanting to go swimming. Most of the RV parks have swimming pools, so the kids are able to start swimming, and will swim most days until the end of our trip.

We also visit San Xavier del Bac, a national historic landmark, and one that we visited on our previous trip.

After a bit in Tucson we head on to Tombstone AZ. We've been surprised that even the older kids don't remember our previous year long trip. We've visited many of the same spots (Mesa Verde, San Xavier del Bac, Deming, Tucson, Tombstone) and in many cases staying in the same RV park.

After Tombstone we head north to Flagstaff. It feels as if the seasons are running in revers, as we've been sweating in the "summer" heat of Whitesands, and Tombstone, but the day we arrive in Flagstaff there is six inches of snow and it is back to freezing temperatures.

In Flagstaff we stay at a KOA Holiday — KOA's come in a few flavors, plain KOAs, KOA Jurney, KOA Holiday, and KOA Resort. The kids think that the KOA Holiday and KOA Resorts are some of the funnest places ever. Multiple parks, miniature golf, game rooms, indoor swimming pool etc. The younger kids really did learn how to swim on the trip, and we spend an hour or two every day in the pool.

While in Flagstaff we visit the Grand Canyon, which wasn't a hit. The kids, especially the older kids, thought it was the most boring thing on our entire trip.

While in Flagstaff Uncle John (Heather's uncle) came by for a visit. He lives an hour or so from Flagstaff.

Kids can be impressed by the smallest things (and not impressed by the Grand Canyon). While doing some shopping in Flagstaff Ronia and Meredith discover an escalator. They decide that this is the coolest ride ever and we spend an hour riding it up and down.

From Flagstaff we want to get over to California, and the plan is to go to Yosemite National Park, but it can be surprising hard to know when the busy season is for different national parks. After a few days of looking, we can't find a place to stay, and so plan to head for northern California instead and the redwoods via Reno.

Nevada didn't have a lot that was interesting — we went through Vegas, which is building mega solar farms alongside the highway, and stayed a week in Reno as a stop over point. We found some good hikes, including one to a waterfall, but the city wasn't very memorable.

Then we headed on to California, Redwood National Park, and the coast. Our first RV spot was a dud, it didn't look like the advertising and was much to close to the highway with no fence or anything. So we only stayed a few nights before moving on. However our next spot was one of our very favorites for the entire trip. We stayed in a very cute RV park surrounded by Redwoods, and only minutes from the beach. The weather was beautiful.

We visited multiple beaches. The water was too cold for swimming, and the rip tides in the area are bad, so no one swims. But we found starfish, clams, shells, etc. and the kids loved exploring new beaches, and the redwoods. We visited one of the redwoods that has been hollowed out so you can drive through it, and there was a place with a sky car, and a sky walk. The sky walk was a hit, it is a mile or so long, and is suspended between the redwoods for the entire distance. It is quite the feeling to be a hundred or more feet up, and still far below the tree tops.

From there we went on to our favorite spot on the Oregon coast, Newport Oregon. We where again able to stay for a few weeks (swimming at the RV park pool, and or going to the beach every day). Even though we are a little further north the water is warmer and there are no rip tides, so everyone could play in the ocean more.

The kids, especially Ronia and Meredith loved the beach, and the ocean. We got some kites to fly, and collected a lot of shells. It was a little bittersweet, as it was our last major stop before heading home.

The kids also had a lot of fun at the Newport Aquarium, and at the Hatfield Marine Center. Ronia especially would run from tank to tank to find more fish, and could stay for hours and hours.

After Newport our trip was mostly "done" and we just needed to get back home (some 800 miles or so). We traveled through Portland, visiting with some friends from when we lived there.

Mostly on the trip Jordan makes the RV reservations, but Heather made our next one. Our plan had been to drive to Hood River, but as we left Portland late in the day and checked our maps, the directions to our next stop didn't go where we thought it would. After some checking, we accidentally had reservations at Mt Hood RV park. It was a little out of the way, but it was late, and we had the reservations so we went. Interestingly it was the very last place we stayed at on our previous year long trip. Even though we stayed there for two months on our last trip, our kids didn't recognize it.

Then we headed on. We had planned to stay a night in Spokane, but after getting there we decided we just wanted to be home. So the kids fell asleep in the car, and we drove through to our place, getting home around 1am on May 19th, and so ending our trip.

We planned that as soon as we where back home that we would re-finish the hardwood floor in the yurt. We had tried a more natural finish when we did the floor and it hadn't held up to the use that we gave it. So we stayed in the trailer and moved everything out of the house. Absolutely everything had to be moved out, and because it is the rainy season, we moved it all the way into storage in town (about an hour away).

The floor ended up being quite the challenge, taking several weeks to refinish, and then taking weeks to get to where the new finish's odor was tolerable, so we ended up living in the trailer until early July, then moving everything back in (again it feels like a move, since storage is a hour drive away).

Our next big project was an overhaul to the car. We had noticed some issues towards the end of our trip and took it to the mechanic, who quoted 10K(!) for the work. That seemed silly, so with about 2.5K worth of parts and a week's work, Heather's dad (Mark) and I sorted it out. It all went really well, except that Mark reinstalled the front brakes upside down, and for two days we couldn't get the brake system to work no matter what we did!

Our next project was starting on a second yurt. When we first built the yurt, our family felt much smaller. Part of that was how big the kids where, Arywen was only 11 and came up to my elbow. Now she is 5'10". Part of it is Ronia coming along and now Liliwen. We had been thinking of several different plans, an earth sheltered house or maybe conventional construction and drawing up plans for both on our trip. But in our planning we found we really like the yurt and would miss it if we made something else, and that our second pick, an earth sheltered house is out because of our soils. It was also the case that a traditional house was likely to take us two years to build and we wanted more room sooner. So we started in on building a second yurt, with the plan to connect it with the first one.

We started construction in July, and then moved back into the trailer, and into town to be close to the midwives / medical facilities for Liliwen's birth. We've always done that (moving into town) ever since Eomaer's birth, since Heather's deliveries are so fast.

With as long as we had lived in the trailer so far this year, I think everyone was ready to be done and return home. We delayed moving into town as much as we could, and then settled in to wait for Liliwen. She came about ten days past due, which is about normal for us.

It is always a little like waiting for a bomb to go off, as Heather's labors start without warning, and are so fast. We had just gotten the kids down to sleep when Heather thought she felt a kick, and that, maybe, probably not, but maybe things where starting. Which is more warning than usual. I got Heather bundled off to the car, and the midwives a warning to race to the birth center, and we were off.

By the time we got there (12 min) Heather was definitely in labor, and things where moving along. The midwives got there shortly after us (which is great, we both appreciate having them present for births). Then things seemed to quiet down for 10 min or so. Heather started to get worried, as by this time we would usually be done. Both midwives had been able to arrive, and Heather could still crack a joke or two. A few minutes later things kicked back up and Liliwen was born on August 13th, just before midnight, and weighing in at 8lbs 15oz.

We where all able to head back to the trailer a few hours later, and got home before any of the kids where awake.

Liliwen has been our calmest, quietest most content baby.

A week or so later we moved back home, and resumed construction. The construction has been pretty demanding. It is easier the second time around, but it still seems to soak up all the time we can find.

We've been able to join the two yurts together, and "move in" to the new one just before Thanksgiving.

We've also been working on a few additional infrastructure projects, adding enough solar panels to run a chest freezer, larger solar/deep cycle batteries to supply more power to the house, we now have really good internet via Starlink, and we made improvements to the main yurt's plumbing too.

We have more projects planned for next year, but for now everyone needs a break. The older girls continued to do the online home school co-op this fall and winter terms, but everyone has Christmas break now. We just got our Christmas tree up, and decorated. We always cut our tree from our land, or the adjoining national forest each year, and this year Meredith was our very excited tree hunter, and found just the right one. Ronia is the cutest thing, but also the stubbornest thing. She is the strongest willed of all our children, with her favorite words being "No!" and "buy-some" (she is sure that this is a single word). Ronia has found it somewhat hard to accept a new little sister. She likes Liliwen, but not that other people, especially mom, need to give Liliwen attention. Liliwen is just starting solid foods, and is a very self possessed and quiet baby. She prefers all the world to be quiet and orderly. Arywen is thinking about learning to drive, but not sure that she wants to yet. Gwyn wishes that she was old enough, and would generally prefer to do older things, especially if her big sister isn't going to jump on the opportunity. Eomaer continues to be boy enough to counterweight five sisters and Meredith is liking her schoolwork, being a big sister, and wonders when we can go on our next trip, and when we can go swimming again...

Until next year, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!